REGNUM STUDIES IN GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY

ORTHODOX HANDBOOK ON ECUMENISM

Resources for Theological Education

“That they all may be one” (John 17:21)

Editors

Pantelis Kalaitzidis
Thomas FitzGerald
Cyril Hovorun
Aikaterini Pekridou
Nikolaos Asproulis
Guy Liagre
Dietrich Werner

Volos Academy Publications

(in cooperation with WCC Publications, Geneva, and Regnum Books International, Oxford)
Volos, Greece, 2014
 (43) VLADIMIR LOSSKY

Paul Ladouceur

Biographical introduction

Vladimir Lossky (1903-58) was one of the leading Orthodox theologians of the twentieth century. He is a
major figure in the neo-patristic movement in modern Orthodox theology and indeed his book The Mystical
Theology of the Eastern Church (1944; English translation 1957) is possibly the most significant and influential
Orthodox writing of modern times.1 Lossky’s theology focuses strongly on themes such as the importance
of apophatism in theology, personalism (the person as distinct from nature, both with respect to God and to
humans), the essence-energies distinction in God (Palamism) and the inseparable links among theology, mys-
ticism and spirituality.
Vladimir Lossky was born in Göttingen (Germany) in 1903, where his father, the well-known Russian
philosopher Nicolas Lossky, lived temporarily for academic reasons. Vladimir spent his childhood in Saint
Petersburg, where he studied history under the religious philosopher and medieval historian Lev Karsavin
from 1919 to 1922. The Lossky family was expelled from the Soviet Union in late 1922, and after two years
in Prague, Vladimir Lossky received a scholarship to study in Paris. He studied medieval history at the Sor-
bonne, specialising in medieval Western thought. Lossky followed closely the teaching of the great Catholic
medievalist Étienne Gilson and in the late 1920s, developed a strong interest in Western mysticism. This in-
terest eventually focussed on the mysticism of Meister Eckhart, and resulted in a profound study on apophatic
theology and knowledge of God in Eckhart, for which he was awarded a doctorate posthumously.2 It was
Eckhart’s constant insistence on the incomprehensibility of God that led Lossky to explore apophatism and
Palamism in the Orthodox tradition.3
Together with other young Russian immigrants in France, especially the Kovalevsky brothers (Eugraph,
Maxime and Serge), Lossky played a leading role in the Fraternity of St Photius, established in 1928 to advo-
cate the universality of Orthodoxy and to promote a local expression of universal Orthodoxy in the countries
of exile of those fleeing the Russian revolution. For Lossky and other members of the Fraternity, this meant an
“enculturation” of Orthodoxy to Western Europe, involving for example rediscovering the ancient roots of the
universal Church from the period before the separation between East and West (for example local saints and
the ancient Gallic Liturgy) and the use of the local language for liturgy, while maintaining essential Orthodox
doctrines. The Fraternity’s activities were intended to provide an Orthodox witness in the West, a bridge between
the separated parts of Christendom. It is in this context that Lossky became a member of the first French-lan-
guage parish, the parish of the Transfiguration-Saint Genevieve, established in 1928 with Father Lev Gillet
(“A Monk of the Eastern Church”) as priest, under Metropolitan Evlogi (Georgievsky). In 1936 Lossky joined
the newly-established French-language parish under the Moscow Patriarchate, Notre-Dame-Joie-des-Affligés.
In the mid-1930s, Vladimir Lossky became deeply involved in the painful conflict over the doctrine of the divine
Sophia, advanced by the leading Orthodox theologian of the time, Father Sergius Bulgakov. Lossky wrote several texts
criticising sophiology, which he regarded as a dangerous doctrine, as well as other aspects of Bulgakov’s theology.
1
Essai sur la théologie mystique de l’Église d’Orient (Aubier-Montaigne, 1944; Le Cerf, 1990). The Mystical Theology of
the Eastern Church (James Clarke: London, 1957; Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976).
2
Published as Théologie négative et connaissance de Dieu chez Maître Eckhart (J. Vrin, 1960). Forward by Maurice de
Gandillac, Preface by Étienne Gilson.
3
Cf. Rowan Douglas Williams, “The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique” (unpublished
thesis, Oxford University, 1975), 8.
Paul Ladouceur 259

In 1945 the “French Orthodox Mission” under the leadership of the brilliant if erratic Father Eugraph Kova-
levsky established the Institut Saint-Denys as a theological school devoted to furthering the development of
French-language Orthodoxy. Lossky was the principal theologian connected with the French Orthodox Mission
and he became dean of the Institute and professor of dogmatics and Church history. He remained with the In-
stitute until Kovalevsky broke with the Moscow Patriarchate in early 1953; Lossky resigned from the Institute,
preferring to remain with Moscow than seeking canonical affiliation elsewhere. He subsequently taught in the
context of pastoral courses organised by the Moscow Patriarchate in France and died suddenly in February 1958.

Ecumenical engagement

Vladimir Lossky was engaged in ecumenical dialogues primarily in two contexts, within the institutional
framework of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius, and, on a less structured basis, with French
theologians, philosophers and other intellectuals, including non-believers.
The Fellowship was founded in 1928 to promote ties between Orthodox and Anglicans and was very active
in the 1930s. Fathers Sergius Bulgakov, Georges Florovsky, Lev Gillet and Sergius Chervernikov were the
principal Orthodox participants in the Fellowship in the pre-war period. In August 1947, Vladimir Lossky
was invited to participate for the first time in the Fellowship’s summer session. In subsequent years, he be-
came one of the leading Orthodox participants in the Fellowship, together with other Orthodox theologians
such as Lev Gillet and Elisabeth Behr-Sigel. Lossky enjoyed considerable prestige among the Anglican
members of the Fellowship because of his patristic orientation and his approach to “mystical theology” – it
was through his involvement with the Fellowship that his Mystical Theology was first translated into English
and published in 1957. For Rowan Williams, Lossky’s stature in many English ecumenical circles grew to
the point that “Lossky came to hold the position, occupied by Bulgakov before the war, of chief spokesman
for the Orthodox viewpoint.”4
Beginning in the 1930s, Lossky had frequent contacts with Catholic theologians and philosophers in Paris
who turned to the study of the early Fathers of the Church, the ressourcement movement which was at the
source of the nouvelle théologie within the Catholic Church. Lossky participated in the Resistance during
World War II, all the while maintaining his intellectual interests, including participation in colloquia organised
by the well-known philosopher Marcel Moré. These meetings brought together a wide range of theologians
and philosophers and it was here that Lossky delivered a series of conferences in 1944 on Orthodox mystical
theology, published in 1944 under the title Essai sur la théologie mystique de l’Église d’Orient.
From these colloquia developed a new periodical, Dieu vivant: Perspectives religieuses et philosophiques,
founded in 1945 by Louis Massignon, Marcel Moré and the future Cardinal Jean Daniélou. The Catholic in-
tellectuals and theologians behind Dieu vivant represented a new voice in Catholic theology, long dominated
by increasingly arid scholasticism. Dieu vivant was a public expression of the “patristic turn” in Catholic
theology, begun in the 1930s and its orientation was decidedly “eschatological”, often on the fringes of, or
even opposed to official Catholic theology. From the start Dieu vivant was ecumenically oriented. The edi-
torial committee, which reviewed manuscripts, consisted of a Catholic (Gabriel Marcel), a Protestant (Pierre
Burgelin), an Orthodox (Lossky) and a non-believer (the philosopher Jean Hyppolite). Lossky contributed an
article on St Gregory Palamas to the first issue of Dieu vivant and published another major article in the journal
in 1948.5 During its short existence (1945-55), Dieu vivant was an influential if controversial periodical on the
French intellectual scene. Other major Orthodox figures who published articles in the journal were Elisabeth
Behr-Sigel, Paul Evdokimov and Myrra Lot-Borodin.
4
Rowan Williams, “The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky,” 27-8.
5
Lossky’s articles in Dieu vivant were “La théologie de la lumière chez saint Grégoire Palamas”, Dieu vivant 1, 1945; and
“Du troisième attribut de l’Église,” Dieu vivant 10, 1948 (translations in In the Image and Likeness of God (Crestwood,
NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974).

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260 Chapter (43)

Lossky also participated in the Centre catholique des intellectuels français (CCIF), founded clandestinely
in 1941 by Catholic philosophers and historians as a meeting-place for French Catholic intellectuals to reflect
on the place of Catholic Christianity in modern society and to take part in the great intellectual debates of the
time. This group was especially active after the war and played an important role in the preparation of the
Second Vatican Council. Open to the active participation of non-Catholics and non-believers, several Orthodox
thinkers (Lossky, Paul Evdokimov and the iconographer Gregory Krug) were invited to take part in the dis-
cussions.6 Lossky’s participation sought in the CCIF “to identify in Western mystical movements those which
are related to Eastern spirituality” and “to witness to the universality of Orthodoxy.”7
In 1939, Vladimir Lossky met Jean Wahl, a renowned French philosopher, forced into exile during World
War II. After the war, Lossky participated in the Collège philosophique, which Wahl founded in 1946 as a
centre for non-conformist intellectuals, an alternative forum to the more conservative Sorbonne. Lossky was a
regular participant in the Collège philosophique, contributing five major papers to its discussions.8 In a similar
vein, in 1945-46 Lossky gave a series of lectures on the vision of God in patristic and Byzantine theology at
the École pratique des hautes études, a leading French secular institution for research and higher education
affiliated with the Sorbonne.9
For the last 15 years of his life, Vladimir Lossky saw his role primarily as witnessing to Orthodoxy in the
West; he represented “the creative presence of a theologian at the heart of the flow of ideas”, an Orthodox
witness “at the heart of Western science and thought” (Olivier Clément).10 This included not only involvement
in confessional institutions such as Catholic and Anglican groups, but also in secular bodies which included
non-believers. Lossky was unflinching in his adherence to Orthodox doctrine, yet at the same time fully prepared
to enter into fraternal dialogue with Western Christians. Rowan Williams writes that Lossky “clearly regarded
it as a part of his theological vocation to identify not only the points of serious divergence between Eastern
and Western Christendom, but also points of convergences, the hidden Orthodoxy of the West.”11

The ecclesiological principles of Lossky’s ecumenical outlook

Vladimir Lossky’s ecumenical outlook rested on two fundamental principles of his ecclesiology: first, in the
“catholicity” of the Church, which, as he emphasizes, is not a geographic notion but rather a recognition of
the presence of the whole Truth of the Church in each of its discrete parts, in the image of Christ as the Head
of the Church, in the smallest component “where two or three are gathered in my Name” (Mt 18:20), as in the
entire Communion of Saints:
Catholicity is not a spatial term indicating the extension of the Church over the entire face of the Earth. It
is rather an intrinsic quality present from the beginning and forever proper to the Church, independent of the
historical conditions in which her space and numbers can be more or less limited. For the Fathers of the first
centuries, the Katholiké or Catholica, used as a noun, often becomes a synonym for Ecclesia, designating a
new reality which is not a part of the cosmos, but a totality of a more absolute order. The Church exists in the
world, but the world cannot contain her…
6
Lossky participated in discussions of “Transcendence and Negative Theology,” “Dogma and Mystery” and “The Myth.”
7
Claire Toupin-Guyot, “Modernité et Christianisme. Le Centre Catholique des intellectuels français (1941-1976). Itinéraire
collectif d’un engagement” (Unpublished thesis, Université Lumière Lyon II, 2000).
8
Lossky’s papers at the Collège philosophique were “Ténèbres et lumière dans la connaissance de Dieu,” “L’apophase et la
théologie trinitaire,” “La notion théologique de la personne,” “La théologie de l’image” and “La rose et l’abîme (la notion
de l’être créé chez Maître Eckhart).” All except the last are contained in In the Image and Likeness of God.
9
These lectures were published in French in 1962 and in English as The Vision of God (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 1983).
10
Olivier Clément, Orient-Occident, Deux passeurs, Vladimir Lossky et Paul Evdokimov (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1985), 98.
11
Rowan Williams, “The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky,” 8.

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Paul Ladouceur 261

The Truth which we confess presents itself in all its objectivity, not as a private opinion, as “my personal theology”,
but as the teaching of the Church, the kath’ olon, as the catholic Truth. The mystery of the catholicity of the Church
is realised in the plurality of personal consciousnesses as a harmony of unity and multiplicity, in the image of the
Holy Trinity which the Church accomplishes in her life: three Consciousnesses, a single Subject; a single “Divine
Council” or “Council of Saints” which is the divine catholicity, if we dare to apply this ecclesiological expression to
the Holy Trinity. In the ecclesiastic realm, in the becoming of the new creation, a number of personal consciousnesses
are the consciousness of the Church only to the extent that they cease being self-awareness and substitute for their
own “me” the single subject of the multiple consciousnesses of the Church.12

And secondly, Lossky recognises the presence of divine grace in non-Orthodox Christian communities:

Faithful to its vocation to assist the salvation of all, the Church of Christ values every “spark of life,” however small, in
the dissident communities. In this way it bears witness to the fact that, despite the separation, they still retain a certain
link with the unique and life-giving centre, a link that is, so far as we are concerned, “invisible and beyond our under-
standing.” There is only one true Church, the sole bestower of sacramental grace; but there are several ways of being
separated from that one true Church, and varying degrees of diminishing ecclesial reality outside its visible limits.13

Lossky’s ecumenical outlook is also tempered by a vivid awareness of the scandal of Christian disunity:
“The absence of unity in the Christian world is a cruel reality, constantly present in the conscience of every
Christian concerned with the common destiny of humanity… The wound caused by these separations remains
virulent and bleeding…”14 Yet for Lossky ecumenical involvement, the search for Christian unity, must be
based on faithfulness to one’s own ecclesial Tradition: “We discover this union of the Churches on condition
that we go to the very end in the clear and sincere confession of the faith of our specific and historical Churches
or communities, to which alone we are committed.”15
Lossky rarely presented his views on ecumenism in a systematic fashion, but his personal involvement in
a variety of institutions bears witness to his commitment to ecumenical dialogue. In his ecumenical activities
he remained faithful to his firm convictions that the Orthodox Church possesses the plenitude of the truth of
Christianity and that it is the responsibility of Orthodox to bear witness to this truth in the societies in which
they live. In practice this meant both presenting the scriptural and patristic foundations of Orthodox theology
and pointing out where Western theologies depart from this tradition to engage in perilous doctrines.
It is in this ecumenical context of contacts with Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants and non-believers that
Lossky prepared many of his writings. Indeed, many of his publications consist of written versions of lectures
delivered in French in the various religious and secular bodies mentioned above. Lossky’s engagement in
inter-confessional dialogue is unmistakable. At the same time he is fully committed to the Orthodox tradition
and accepts no compromise in the expression of essential Orthodox theological doctrines, which have an
inevitable impact on Christian spiritual life. For Lossky, the conflict of ideas and doctrines among modern
Christian Churches and communities is real, but the exposition of divergent theologies takes place in a context
of openness and respect, a search for truth wherever truth is to be found.
12
Vladimir Lossky, “La Conscience catholique: Implications anthropologiques du dogme de l’Église,” in À l’Image et à
la Ressemblance de Dieu (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1968), 190-1.
13
Vladimir Lossky, introductory note to Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky), “L’Église du Christ et les communautés dissi-
dentes,” in Messager de l’Exarchat du Patriarche russe en Europe occidentale 21 (1955): 9-10. Cited by Kallistos Ware,
“Strange Yet Familiar: My Journey to the Orthodox Church,” The Inner Kingdom (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 2001), 9.
14
Vladimir Lossky, “The Doctrine of Grace in the Orthodox Church” [c. 1952], published in Présence orthodoxe (Paris),
42 (1979). Introduction and English translation by Paul Ladouceur, forthcoming in St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly
(2014). See Lossky’s introduction to this article below.
15
Vladimir Lossky, “The Doctrine of Grace in the Orthodox Church.”

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Bibliography

Vladimir Lossky wrote mostly in French. Several of his books are transcriptions of lectures or courses
taught in Paris or posthumous collections of articles. This bibliography includes the original publication and
translations in English where applicable.

I. Works by Vladimir Lossky.

Spor o Sofii [The Controversy over Sophia], (Paris: Confrérie Saint-Photius, 1936).
Essai sur la théologie mystique de l’Église d’Orient, (Paris: Éditions Montaigne, 1944; Le Cerf, 1990; 2004).
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church Church, (James Clarke: London, 1957; Crestwood, NY: St
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976).
Der Sinn des Ikonen (with Leonid Ouspensky), (Bern and Olten, 1952). The Meaning of Icons, (Boston, 1952;
Crestwood NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989).
Théologie négative et connaissance de Dieu chez Maître Eckhart, (J. Vrin, 1960; 1973; 1998).
Vision de Dieu (Lausanne: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1962). Vision of God, (Crestwood NY: St Vladimir’s Sem-
inary Press, 1983).
À l’image et à la ressemblance de Dieu, (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1967; Le Cerf, 2006). In the Image and
Likeness of God, (Crestwood NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974).
Théologie dogmatique in: Messager de l’Exarcat du Patriarche russe en Europe occidentale, (Paris, 1964-
1965); La Vie spirituelle 677 (Paris, 1987); (Paris: Le Cerf, 2011). Orthodox Theology: An Introduction
(Crestwood NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1978).
La Paternité spirituelle en Russie aux XVIIIième et XIXième siècles (with Nicolas Arseniev), (Bellefontaine [SO
21], 1977).
Sept jours sur les routes de France (Le Cerf, 2001). Seven Days on the Roads of France, (Crestwood NY: St
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012).
Histoire du dogme. Course given by Vladimir Lossky between 1955 and 1958. Unpublished manuscript, recorded
and transcribed by Olivier Clément (numerous quotations from this work are contained in Olivier Clément
Orient-Occident, Deux passeurs: Vladimir Lossky et Paul Evdokimov, (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1985).

II. Major Works on Vladimir Lossky.

The most important study of Lossky’s theology is Rowan Williams’ unpublished doctoral thesis:
Rowan Douglas Williams, The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique. Thesis,
Oxford University, 1975. Available online at the Oxford University Research Archive (http://ora.ouls.
ox.ac.uk). See also his article “The Via Negativa and the Foundations of Theology: An Introduction to
the Thought of V. N. Lossky,” New Studies in Theology 1 (1980).
Olivier Clément, Orient-Occident, Deux passeurs: Vladimir Lossky et Paul Evdokimov, (Geneva: Labor et
Fides, 1985).
Special issue devoted to Vladimir Lossky of the journal Contacts (Paris, 31, 106, 1979), 111-238. Articles by
Donald A. Alichin, J.R. Bouchet, Olivier Clément, Étienne Gilson, Basil Krivochein, John Meyendorff,
and Christos Yannaras.

Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism